Friday, January 23, 2015

"The attacks in Paris occurred in a very Islamophobic and racist context in France," said Elsa Ray, spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), an advocacy group which has recorded reports of over 66 anti-Muslim attacks (not necessarily reported to the police) in the past two weeks. "The number [of anti-Muslim attacks] has been increasing over the past few years because hate speech and stigmatizing discourse on Muslims have been a global trend and the French government has done nothing to counter this problem, to counter discrimination and violence toward Muslims."